Does it Make a Difference?

Does the medicine make a difference?  Ryan has had a great school year.  His teachers send home good reports and when we speak with them about the difficulties he is having at home after school and with his homework, they say that they do not see any of that behavior in school.  Well, until today.

I forgot to give Ryan his medicine this morning.  When I realized this, it was already close to 8:30 and the bus was about to come.  I could have quickly administered it to him but then I thought it might be too close in time to the dose he would be getting at school during lunchtime, so I opted to skip it.  I remember thinking to myself, "He is usually wonderful at school; he will be so busy with activities and school work all morning that he'll be fine without it."  Boy was I wrong!

Here is the note I received from his teacher today:

Ryan had a tough morning.  He was calling out, not following directions, and refused to flip his card.  We encouraged him to earn it back but unfortunately it continued in a negative way.  Ryan continued to call out, called another student a tattle tale, then threw his highlighter.  Ryan refused to apologize or flip his card.  The principal came and spoke to Ryan.  Ryan still refused to apologize.  I finally said he could not go to lunch unless he apologized- that worked.  Ryan did have a better afternoon and earned his card flipped back.

DC